East Central Railway has decided to place informative boards at stations that would give people a brief history of the place and its significance.

The decision has been taken in a bid to make travellers and visitors aware about a place. The boards are scheduled to come up at 26 railway stations within a month.

Madhuresh Kumar, the general manager of East Central Railway (ECR), under whose initiative this is being done, told The Telegraph: 'The boards would help passengers become aware about the place. Normally, when people arrive at a railway station, they want to know about the place they are visiting and a brief history. Through these boards, we would provide people important information on the history of the railway station, the city and other details. These would come up at 26 railway stations in the first phase.'

Each board would cost Rs 3,250.

The boards would be scattered across the five ECR divisions. Danapur will have seven boards, Samastipur nine and Sonepur five, while Dhanbad and Mughalsarai would get three and two boards, respectively.

Some of the stations where the boards would come up in Bihar are Patna Sahib, Nalanda, Biharsharif, Rajgir, Pawapuri, Buxar and Ara. The texts are yet to be decided.

Patna Junction, which comes under the Danapur division, has not been included in the first list. Sources said it was because people generally were more aware about the Bihar capital Patna than the other cities and towns in the state.

Passengers are happy with the new initiative.

Patna residentYogesh Kumar said: 'I have never seen such boards at any other station. If this is done properly, it would be a big help for passengers who are new to a place. It would be interesting to know more about a place we are visiting.'

On the source from where the information would be gleaned, Madhuresh said: 'To ensure authenticity, most of the information has been provided by the railways. Besides, we have taken help of different publications and the Internet. Our people are working day and night on this project. Within a month, the boards would be available at the stations.'

To ensure the boards stay in good form for a long time, stainless steel would be used. The boards would also be 5ft above the floor.

The chief public relations officer of ECR, Arvind Kumar Rajak, said: 'The logo and name of the station would be in red and the border in green. The text would be in navy blue. Chains would protect the plaques from damage.'

He added: 'As far as where the boards would be installed, that would be decided on the basis of maximum footfall. We would put up the boards in such a place where maximum of the passengers can see it.'